Outed

He stared at the screen for a good minute after Mysterio’s face had disappeared for the last time. He couldn’t believe what had happened even if the evidence for it could be read in the distant chattering of New Yorkers trying to process the unexpected announcement. Peter feared he would fall off of whatever skyscraper he had watched the video from, in shock.

He wasn’t much better twenty minutes later, when he walked into Ned’s house, more used to talking about Spiderman things with him. He didn’t even have to ask to know that Peter was upset about what had happened, and immediately engulfed him in a hug.

They stayed like that, Ned embracing his best friend since childhood and Peter trying to suck comfort from Ned, for a while, before they pulled away, Ned promptly asking, “Are you okay?” even though the answer was obvious.

Peter laughed without humour, before shaking his head. Since there wasn’t much to say about the situation other than that it sucked, they decided to check the internet to see how bad the reaction was. It was not good.

There were countless articles with headlines along the lines of, ‘Spiderman, a woman?’ and many hateful comments about Peter’s gender identity.The worst to him were the ‘spiderwoman’ and ‘spidergirl’ comments. Of course there were some good people out there. People defended him against transphobes, or tried to, but it was not enough. The cruelty just kept coming.

He briefly wondered how MJ would react, but he calmed himself. Even if she could be rude and sarcastic at times, she was not a bad person and she would accept him for who he was: a boy, a man. She might be mad that he had kept it from her but he decided if that was the case he could deal with it.

After seeing the amount of transphobia and general horridness, they quickly shut off the computer and Peter left to go home.

---

As soon as he opened the door, he was wrapped up in his aunt’s arms. He quickly pulled away, although not without hugging her back for half a minute. Even if he had already been on the receiving end of comfort, it still felt good to know that someone else loved and accepted him unconditionally.

May asked him if he wanted to talk about it and he, being overcome by all the emotion he had felt in the last few hours, broke down and told her about all the horrible things people were saying online. She just hugged him and said that he could stay home from school tomorrow. He declined, thinking it might seem suspicious.

He went to his room and tried to sleep, since it was getting late, but ended up laying awake for hours and barely getting any sleep.

---

He was not at all rested when he woke up for school the next day. The memories of the previous day were still fresh in his mind and he was really not in the mood to deal with a hundred oblivious teenagers. Despite this he reluctantly got out of the warmth of his bed and walked to the kitchen for breakfast.

Once he was dressed and fed, he took a deep breath, opened the door, and began the familiar journey from home to school. It seemed simultaneously longer and shorter than normal due to his nerves, but either way, he soon made it.

Of course nothing was really different. No one other than Ned and MJ knew he was Spiderman and so had no reason to treat him differently. On one or two occasions, he thought he heard people discussing his (Spiderman’s) transness, but he ignored it because why should he, unimportant Peter Parker care about New York City’s friendly superhero's gender identity?

He was caught up in his thoughts when he suddenly bumped into someone. When he looked up, he saw MJ, his girlfriend, who hadn’t known about him being trans before yesterday. She didn’t do or say anything to suggest she had seen the announcement though she must have. Everyone had.

She simply asked if he was okay, to which he replied not really which was the truth, and needlessly stated, “People are talking.”

Peter assumed they would talk more later and went on his way to class.

---

They didn’t talk more later, in fact MJ barely mentioned the situation other than to ask if Peter was okay. Finally, he couldn’t stand the questions in his head anymore, and blurted, “Does it bother you?”

To which MJ replied, “Why would it bother me?” and that was that. He had another supporter and he couldn’t be happier. Of course, there was still the whole ‘Everybody knows Spiderman (who is me) is trans’ problem to deal with. But, Peter thought, with the 3 most important people in his life knowing and accepting him, he could get through this.

THE END